What's up with Historical Kdramas? #Kdrama 101 (Class 4)

One of the comments
on my blog asked what is up with Koreans complaining about the historical
inaccuracy in Korean dramas. This class of Kdrama 101 is about this topic.

Introduction

I
love history.

I
loved history enough to think seriously about majoring in history years ago.

But
the lack of cash making potential deterred me from choosing that path.

I am
Korean and we either go for the money or prestige. And I do not really care for
the latter.

So,
people sometimes ask me about historical accuracy in Historical Korean dramas
or "사극". They ask whether it bothers me that they are
not always accurate in how they portray historical facts. My answer is no!

To be
blunt, the Korean dramas set in the past that were made in the last, let's say,
10 years are generally terribly inaccurate in their portrayal of the past.

The discussion about historical accuracy

So,
there are some rather loud mumbling about this in certain sections of the
Korean audience. They claim that Korean dramas have the social responsibility
to represent history as accurately as possible.

On
the other hand, for people who watch these historical dramas as pure
entertainment which include non-Koreans and even many Koreans, these complaints
are rather unreasonable. They say that...

For a
program made for entertainment purposes, isn't artistic license the priority?

Isn't
it fine if the drama does not make historical accuracy a selling point?

This
discussion is nothing new. It has been going on since there was enough
historical knowledgeable accumulated to argue over. What is unique about the
discussion around Koreans dramas is its intensity, which can be equated to the
passion of "One direction" fan girls, compared to the discussion set
in the US.

For
Americans, dramas set in the past can be categorized into two general types: a
historical event based drama and a period piece drama. For the latter, there is
much leeway given in regard to historical accuracy as it is seen to be pure
entertainment. Even for the former, if the historical narrative established by
the society is maintained, Americans tend to be forgiving of some fudging
around on the part of the writers.

For
Koreans, there is not this implied consensus regarding the divide between a
historical event based drama and a period piece drama. What is more odd is that
people tend to react more violently when what to non-Koreans is obviously a
period piece drama has inaccurate elements.

There are several factors that
contribute to this difference. However a lot of this difference is based upon
the level of maturity/stability of historical narratives within each society.

What is a historical narrative?

A
historical narrative is basically a concise story about not only a sequence of
events that happened but also what it means to the members of the society.

In
regard to historical narratives, America has a leg up on Korea. In general,
there is a general consensus about the stories that make up American history.

American
independence was good.

Slavery
was bad

WWI
was meh....

WWII
was this great crusade. Go greatest generation!

For
Koreans, it is a rather different story no pun intended. Other than the
Japanese was bad for their occupation of Korea that ended about 70 years ago,
we, Koreans, seem to not be able to come to a consensus about much in regard to
history.

Why
are Koreans like this? Well the answer lies in history of course.

Let's
summarize the past 100 years of Korean history.

A brief summary of recent Korean history

Korea
was basically a medieval society ruled by a monarchy supported by a bureaucratic
upper class until the turn of the 20th century. After traumatically being
introduced to the modern world, Korea was occupied by Japan.

When
we think medieval country, we think of castles and kings. However, what is more
important is that it is a collection of highly fragmented and isolated
societies loosely coupled together by the upper classes. There was no nation in
the modern sense. Every region and group had their own needs and wants without
much communication between each other. As a result, it was difficult to find a
consensus even within the upper classes. In Historical Korean dramas or "사극", this is
portrayed as the political infighting within the upper classes rather than a
social structural issue.

This
does not change that much during the Japanese occupation other than the fact
that most Koreans, well not all, hated the Japanese. Once liberated, the social
fragment still existed albeit increasingly less based on regional differences.

There
was the stuff about traditional values versus modern values.

There
was the remnant of the class conflict.

There
was the whole bucket load of stuff regarding the military dictatorships.

Also,
there was the whole ideology struggle that still goes on to this day.

Now
more than one decade into 21th century, Korea is less fragmented although it is
one of the few countries on the planet in which communism is still a viable
political ideology.

This
Korea can be seen in Korean drama although in a glamorized distorted form.

So
what does this have to do with the whole discussion about historical Korean
dramas?

Well
a lot actually!

The lack of mature/stable of historical narratives and Korean
dramas

The
consequence of this fragmentation during the past is that historical narratives
were not given a chance to develop and mature. So, what happens when there is
not a general consensus about a historical event? One of the things is...

Well
it's left to individual interpretations!

As
a result, historical events are open to be used as ammo for political arguments
and ideology confrontations.

What
does this mean for Korean dramas?

It
means that so called inaccurate historical elements in Korean drama could be
viewed as manipulation by the writers to advance a specific viewpoint rather
than being just for entertainment purposes. And to be frank, there are a lot of
Historical Korean dramas or "사극" that do
this.

In fact, it is a tradition!

During
the military dictatorship, Historical Korean dramas or "사극" were
frequently used to criticize the government since they had the excuse that they
are just showing historical events. For this purpose, these Korean dramas tend
to stick closely to the recorded history while crafting the presentation to
enhance one's viewpoints.

For
a Korean viewer, especially those who are over 30 years old, Historical Korean
dramas or "사극" are viewed with suspicion/preconceptions albeit
on a subconscious level. They were essentially train to be. These are the
viewers who have a difficulty with differentiating between a historical event
based drama and a period piece drama. To them anything set in the past should
be treated more seriously. So, they are
more critical about pure period piece drama.

In
addition to the sense of being manipulated, there is a sense of insecurity
regarding history in Korea that influences the Korean viewer.

Korean and its insecurity regarding history

For
Americans, there is a confidence regarding the development of history as an
academic subject and the distribution of history throughout the population. So,
mainstream entertainment mediums are not viewed to be the vanguard of accurate historical
dissemination.

In
Korea, we lack this confidence as history as a subject is rather ridiculously
weak. In the realm of education, history is not an important subject and is
taught as a sequence of factoids but void of interpretation. This is the
remnant of the past dictatorship's policies since history could be used to
attack the government.

As
an academic subject, there are good research being done but they do not really
get disseminated to the population. In the literature area, the history books
that are out focus on factoids and rather scandalous side stories. They avoid
trying to develop an overall historical narrative.

Even
for a historical buff like me, I read far fewer books on Korean history
compared to western history which focuses on interpretation and meaning.

Thus,
we, Koreans, tend to put more emphasis mainstream media channels to disseminate
the so called accurate history.

In conclusion

The
discussion regarding how history is portrayed in entertainment mediums will
always be a hot discussion. In Korea, this discussion is closely tied to our
own history and the history of Korean dramas.

Because
of our past, we lack of mature/stable of historical narratives and these cause controversies
in how this weakness is exploited by creators in Korean dramas. We are also insecure
about the population’s relationship with history.